1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to powering of magnetic coils used to actuate mechanical latching hybrid switches and relays and for reducing the needed force to operate the mechanical latching.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Switches and relays for switching on-off electrical appliances such as water boiler, air conditioners, heaters, lights and any other electrical equipment and appliances in residences, offices, public building, businesses, restaurants and factories are very well known. The well known relay devices for home automation are commonly installed in the main or a sub electrical cabinet of a given premises. The installed relays are operated via bus lines, RF, or by control signal propagated via the AC power line.
The costs of the prior known automation devices and relays including their installation are very high because the electrical wiring must be changed from its standard commonly applied wiring systems, in which the electrical power is fed via the commonly installed switches in the electrical wall boxes. This is in clear contrast to the electrical direct feed from the main or sub electrical cabinet via the relays.
For controlling the relays in the electrical cabinets, the commonly used standard switches are replaced by control switches, propagating electrical signals, RF signals, AC power line signals and in some instances IR signals in open air to reach and operate the relay's control circuits in the electrical cabinets.
Such fundamental basic change in the structured electrical systems became too complex, costly and moreover the complexity is the cause for serious repeated malfunctions of the installed electrical automation systems. Further, the known home automation devices do not report the power consumed by the individual electrical appliances and do not provide usable data for reporting statistics to the home owners, nor to the yet to be born “smart grid”.
The U.S. Pat. No. 7,649,727 introduced a new concept whereby single pole dual throw (SPDT) relay connected to a commonly used SPDT switch or dual poles dual throw (DPDT) switch enabling to switch the electrical appliances or lights manually via the commonly installed switch and remotely via the home automation controller. The SPDT and DPDT switches are known also as two way, four way or cross-straight switch respectively.
Further, the U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,639,907, 7,864,500, 7,973,647, 8,041,221, 8,148,921, 8,170,722, 8,175,463, 8,269,376, 8,331,794, 8,331,795, 8,340,527, 8,344,668, 8,384,249 and 8,442,792 disclose home automation controls, connections, switches and relays for operating electrical appliance via the devices being an add on device such as the SPDT and DPDT relays or current drain adaptors. U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,036,320, 9,257,251 and 9,281,147 particularly disclose latching relays and hybrid switches.
The referenced US patents further disclose in details the reporting of the power consumed by the appliances through the relays or through AC outlets and plugs or through the current drain adaptors. The current drain or power consumption reports are communicated via optical signals through plastic optical fiber cables known as POF or lightguide, via IR or RF in open air, and via electrical signals through bus lines or other networks directly or via command convertors.
The above listed US patents and pending applications in other countries disclose an add on or a combination of separate SPDT or DPDT switches and/or power sockets and/or current sensing adaptor combinations, which all teach substantially advanced residence and other building automation.
Yet, there is a need for a single automation device comprising a combination of an hybrid switch and a relay that are structured within the sizes and shapes of current day commonly used AC switches at a lower cost than current day automation devices and further providing installation ease and simplicity.
The one issue affecting the size and efficiency of the latching relay or hybrid switch is the magnetic coil pull power and the latching device needed power to compress a spring of the mechanical guide termed lock link, and its pin movement withing an indentation path and ridges in the latch and the release movements of the relay or the hybrid switch as disclosed further below.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 9,219,358 disclose an intelligent support boxes for measuring and reporting the power consumed by the relays, switches and hybrid switch that are attached to the intelligent boxes by a simple push to attach, reducing substantially the switch installation time and cost, which calls for a structured Hybrid switches, relays and switches to be fit for installation into electrical intelligent support boxes, which is another objective of the present invention.
The U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/073,075 discloses keys for actuating the hybrid switches manually including the actuating of micro switch poles with a latching structure of the present invention, but without disclosing the latching structure particulars.